Sid Meier Bringing Civilization To Facebook

Sid Meier is taking two of the most addictive games ever created—Civilization and Facebook—and melding them into one. Today he announced Civilization Network, coming to Facebook in 2010.

Civilization Network will allow you and your friends to band together to create the most powerful, wealthy, or most intelligent civilisation. Think Mafia Wars, only with shifty Romans instead of shifty Italians. I suppose that's pretty much the same thing these days. Toss giant plumed helmets on the mobsters and off you go.

Sid Meier himself announced the upcoming app in the CivFanatics forums.

I wanted to let you know we'll soon be looking for beta testers to help us develop a unique new way to play Civilization. Ever since we finished Civilization® Revolution™ last year, I've been looking at ways of expanding the Civ gameplay experience to include solo, competitive and cooperative play to take advantage of the uniqueness of social networks. We're calling this project Civilization® Network™ and the full game will be available next year on Facebook. Civilization Network will allow you to join together with your friends to create the world's most powerful, richest, smartest, or just plain coolest civilization. You can coordinate your strategy to win great battles, share your technology to jump ahead of your rivals, lobby your family and friends to form your own government and win vital elections, manage and grow your cities to maximize production and happiness, spy on your enemies, and work with your friends to create the great Wonders of the World. The game will offer everything you enjoy in Civ in a fully persistent environment - you can play as much as you like, whenever you like, and it'll be free to play.

Thanks a lot, Sid. I still had a little free time left, and that was bugging the hell out of me.

As the man says, they'll be looking for beta testers soon. Your best bet? Head over to the Civilization Network Facebook page and become a fan. Might as well get it over with now.

Triple AAA games nailing the brief. Indie games surprising people out of nowhere, and expansions and patches that completely turn a game around. It's been a good year for games - now it's time for you to vote for your favourite.